Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Goat- BY Myself?! December 11, 2010

I got word from my bud, Dany, that she wasn't going to be able to make it to today's orienteering meet. She couldn't get her sons to come. I almost decided not to go, but then decided what the heck. On the drive to Jefferson Memorial Forest I realized that this was the first time I had ever been to an orienteering meet by myself. Oh crap- I wont have no one to chat with when I get lost! I had always managed to talk someone else into going; my husband, his sister, Dany. Nope not this time. I was on my own. I was kind of excited to see how I would
do without anyone to help me second guess. There were 3 courses: The Goat, The Junior Goat, and the Kid Goat. Originally, I would've probably signed us up for the goat, but since I was alone, I decided to do the Junior Goat. In hindsight, thank goodness for that. They were allowing 4 hours for the Goat and rain was heading in. Did not want to be on those hills when the rain came. It was already a little balmy. Anyhow, I got my map, listened to the pre-race briefing, and we were off. Since this was a goat race, you could follow others, but there were also forked controls. You had to choose the A route or the B route
and whichever way you decided you had to stick with that route through those 3 checkpoints. I thought the B route looked better to me. I think I may have lost some time heading to the very first control by sticking to the road instead of cutting cross country. I soon found a groove though and felt I was doing fairly well. I was keeping and eye on the clock. At one point I came to a pond and the control point was on the other corner. This was one spot I should have went the longer way around. The ground was very wet and with leaves on a steep embankment above a pond- not a good combination. I practically slid on my butt trying to stay so close to the ground so I wouldn't slide down into the pond. I was also concerned about two high school boys close behind me that made the same mistake. When I reached the control point, I waited, pretending to study my map, just to make sure they reached the control point safely. They did and I headed off again. There were a few checkpoints in some pretty steep ravines. I began to understand why they called it the goat. I thought it was because you were allowed to follow, but no- you had to be a goat to climb and keep your footing on those hills. I finally made it back in to the finish line. All 12 control points found- 1:19:14 was my time. Good enough for 5th place. I didn't get lost after all!